HX Hotel Experience 2017 highlights, Day 1

Senior Editor

Nov 13, 2017

This week Hcareers attended HX: The Hotel Experience, the largest trade event in North America for the hospitality industry, in NYC from November 12-13. Every year the event brings together over 10,000 industry professionals, from hospitality students and recent graduates, GMs, hotel owners and management companies, hundreds of vendors, and top executives from the biggest brands in the hotel industry.

While we'll be re-visiting in the coming weeks some of the most important topics to come out of the event, here is a quick round-up of some of the most interesting discussions, quotes, announcements, news items, and tid-bits we heard on day 1 of this 2-day hospitality mega-conference:

Key skills that are in high demand right now on the hospitality job market: problem solving, flexibility & adaptability, communication, attention to detail, and patience.

"One of the things that's critical as a professional is self-awareness ... knowing who you are and claiming what you're great at and claiming what you're not so great at and making a plan to build on both." Jerry Montgomery, Chief Human Resources Officer, Carnival Corporation

Poor writing skills is one of the biggest shortcomings hospitalty employers see from recent graduates, but it's a key part of the customer experience, says Lani Kane-Hanan, Executive Vice President of Marriott Vacations Worldwide.

Dave Lorenzini, COO of youAR.io says 2018 "is the year artificialintelligence starts being deployed and making an impact" in the hotel industry.

Hilton hr looks at over 1.2 million resumes per year from job applicants, and on average they open one new hotel every 1.5 days.

The American Hotel & Lodging Association's new apprenticeship program provides a 6-month direct pathway to a management-level position in hospitality.

Already on or getting ready to enter the hospitality job market? Learn all you can about behavioral interview questions and tactics.

Robotics, artificialintelligence, virtual & augmentedreality, and chatbots are still trending heavy throughout hospitality.